


Team Bonding Adventures

by cairistiona13



Category: I.O.I (Band)
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Best Friends, Bonding, Campfires, Camping, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Forced Bonding, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mentioned bullying, Netizens, Post-Produce 101, Pre-debut, Road Trips, Sunrises, Sunsets, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-08 03:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 5,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10376388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cairistiona13/pseuds/cairistiona13
Summary: I.O.I, post-PD101 but pre-debut, go on a bonding trip together. Tiny snippets from each POV.





	1. Im Nayoung

**Author's Note:**

> This was an incredibly self-indulgent little piece written for a writing challenge over a period of months, the first being released the day after the lineup was announced and the final chapter the day that they broke up. It is canon-compliant but obviously didn't actually happen.
> 
> It is also not in chronological order.

“I told you so,” Somi pipes up from her corner of the car. “I _told_ you that would happen. You should have listened to me; I know what I’m talking about. Right, Nayoung-unnie?”

Yoojung groans, as loudly and exasperated as she can manage. It’s a wonder Chaeyeon and Chungha are even able to sleep, with this racket.

“What?” Nayoung asks from the driver’s seat, wondering if she really wants to know. Why she volunteered to drive the first half of the journey, she doesn’t know. Why Sejeong decided on a group bonding trip—well, she doesn’t know that, either. But it’s not her job to ask. Her job is to drive.

“Don’t worry about them,” Sejeong says, curving around to look behind her at the nine girls piled up into the back of the minivan. Nayoung still isn’t quite sure how she managed to acquire a 12-seater without it actually being a _bus_ , or with bench seats, but Sejeong works magic, and she’s learnt not to question her. Nayoung is supposed to be the leader because she’s the oldest, but she’s pretty sure Sejeong and Kyulkyung are better at it than she is.

“Mina-unnie and Doyeon-unnie were playing this game,” Somi explains, “but Doyeon-unnie was supposed to do this move and it turned into this move instead.”

Nayoung doesn’t need to look at her to know that she’s moving her arms, expressive as always. She keeps her eyes firmly on the road, but nods, to show she understands—even though she doesn’t, really. It’s safer, when it comes to Somi, to pretend to understand.

“Oh, wow!” Yeunjung calls, and there’s the audible sound of girls pressing themselves up against the windows.

“The sunset is so pretty here,” Mina says. “Isn’t it lovely? Sejeong-unnie? I wish Nayoung-unnie were here to see it.”

Nayoung smiles softly to herself. It’s been hard for all of them, leaving friends behind—more so now they’re on this trip. She wonders how Siyeon is doing, and hopes Yebin and Minkyung are looking after her.

“Stone Buddha Nayoung,” Sejeong teases a moment later, and without taking her eyes off the road, Nayoung sticks out her tongue, knowing that Sejeong will take it as intended. The mood picks up instantly, as the girls remember who they’re with, and what their trip is for.

“So what kind of things do you want to do?” Kyulkyung asks.

“Party!” Somi calls.

“We should go shopping,” Yoojung says. “Right, Doyeon?” There’s a sound of affirmation from a couple of the other girls.

“We should practice too,” Sohye says. “We can’t slack on our performances.”

“Well, of course not,” Yoojung says. “But we need to have fun too.”

“You are aware that we’re going to a team bonding camp?” Sejeong asks, leaning over her should to look at them all. “We’ll be having fun, but we probably won’t be able to party or go shopping—and this is our break from practising, Sohye. A couple of days off won’t hurt.”

Nayoung doesn’t need to look in the mirror to know that Sohye probably looks scandalised. The other girls laugh, and Nayoung smiles too. “It’ll be fine,” she says. “You’ll see.”

As they drive on and the sun sets, Nayoung has to admit that the skyline is beautiful, and that even if she misses her friends, she loves these ten girls, and, for the first time in years, she’s really happy.


	2. Jeon Somi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deliberately didn't look up the lyrics to AOA's Oh Boy, also known as one of their best songs ever. I know that the lyrics are wrong. :)

“Oh boy! Oh boy! Ko koru wa ka kani!” Yoojung shrieks.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not right. Or Japanese,” Somi says absently, trying to hook her foot into an obstinate foothold. She’s halfway up the climbing wall at their team bonding camp, and she likes to think she’s doing a very good job of it. The other girls are trying to distract her, as always. This is supposed to be for team bonding, but all they seem to be doing is singing and making her fall off the wall.

“Oh boy you know how we do! Eenie meenie minie mo,” Kyulkyung supplies, and then breaks off into giggles as Chungha falls a foot—delicately and somehow also sexily, without injuring herself at all. Sejeong checks, so Somi isn’t worried.

Somi climbs another foot before more bad Japanese distracts her into dropping her handhold. She’s in a harness and completely fearless, so she’s not afraid of falling again. She’s just a little annoyed, even though she adores Yoojung.

“Why didn’t you bring your phone?” Somi asks her, choosing a different handhold and pulling herself further up the wall. There’s a mission card at the top and she wants to get it within five minutes. “At least we could have had the actual song.”

“You know why none of us brought phones,” Nayoung says. “This is a bonding exercise.”

Somi doesn’t whine, because she knows she’ll only be reprimanded for it. She’s the youngest—she barely gets away with not using honorifics for Yoojung, Doyeon and her roommate Sohye (she’s never tried with Mina-unnie). Instead, she just steels her expression and pulls herself up further. She can hear Chungha below her, moving steadily to the right for their other mission card.

“Go to the left a bit, Somi,” Chaeyeon calls up to her, and that’s when Somi realises how far up she’s got.

“Thank you, Chaeyeon-unnie,” she says, being grateful for at least a bit of help. And she can’t see the mission card from here, anyway.

Below, Doyeon launches into the chorus of Heart Attack, and Somi thinks she’s going to get one of those soon. At least the lyrics aren’t as mangled this time.

It’s as she thinks this that she reaches the top and pulls herself up onto the flat wooden surface. From here she can see the world—an expanse of trees with tents and wild animals and nothing to mar the beauty of it all. There are also plenty of zip lines in this camp, including one from the top of the climbing wall to the bottom. She grabs the mission card, hooks her harness to the line, and shoots down it, screaming in glee so loudly she drowns out all the AOA imitations.

In this moment, the endorphins running through her veins make everything worth it.


	3. Kim Doyeon

“—live their days in happiness. The end,” Doyeon finishes. It was supposed to be a quick bedtime story—even teenagers are allowed them sometimes—but it actually became a mammoth fairytale. She’s slightly exhausted from coming up with something new. Internally, she hopes Chaeyeon and Yoojung don’t ask for another one tomorrow night—it’s their turn, she thinks. Though she’s pretty sure Yoojung’s story will just be of her and Jinyoung-sunbaenim…

Yoojung sighs loudly. As if to prove Doyeon right, she says wistfully, “I wish that Jinyoung-sunbaenim and I could have something like that! He barely knows I exist! But wouldn’t it be lovely?”

Chaeyeon laughs. “He knows you exist!”

Yoojung squeals at the memory. Doyeon laughs.

“Anyway, that was a nice story, Doyeon. Thank you!” Chaeyeon continues.

“Yes! Thank you!” Yoojung agrees. “You’re so good to us, Doyeonnie.”

Doyeon rolls her eyes, glad that it’s dark and they can’t see her. “It’s no problem. But you owe me a story now!”

“I could give you a story about me and Jinyoung-sunbaenim?” Yoojung offers.

“No, thank you,” Doyeon says, “because I know that story very well now. Chaeyeon-unnie?”

“I know lots of scary stories to tell around a camp fire,” Chaeyeon says cheerfully. “Let’s do that on our last night here!”

Doyeon twitches and Yoojung squeals—a different squeal this time; one of horror. “Please don’t!”

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Chaeyeon says. “Like the story about the hand—”

Doyeon thinks Yoojung’s scream is probably loud enough to wake up the whole forest.


	4. Jung Chaeyeon

As trainees, DIA had never had the chance to be on a trip like this. As idols, they'd never had the _time_ to go on a trip like this.

Becoming a trainee again had given Chaeyeon this chance--the chance to act like a young teenager again, to play with a group of other girls who she likes (after weeks and weeks of sharing rooms together). She has the chance to rock climb and abseil and listen to Doyeon tell them fairytales late at night.

And right now, she's sitting on one side of the campfire, eight other girls looking at her with wide eyes (one is just not looking at her at all), as she takes the opportunity given by her suspenseful pause in her horror story to toast her marshmallow some more. She tugs it off the poker with her teeth and squeaks in pleasure at the sugar rush it gives her. Combined with the rush of scaring the other girls, it gives her a confident high. She knows she can take her time.

"But what _happened_ , Unnie?" Somi asks impatiently, leaning forward with her hands spread flat on the ground. Her expression, lit up by the heat of the fire, is a combination of fear and _need_.

Not all of the girls are scared. Kyulkyung is stroking Yoojung's hair, Sejeong is grinning somewhat _too_ cheerfully at Chaeyeon (though that's par for the course with Sejeong; _nothing_ affects Sejeong), and Chungha is looking around at the other girls calmly. Nayoung is more scared than Chaeyeon had thought she'd be, even though she's hiding it pretty well, focusing on hugging Yeonjung and Sohye close. Doyeon is _far_ more scared than Chaeyeon had thought she'd be, trying to snuggle into Kyulkyung's other side. Somi stays in place, eyes wide as she stares at Chaeyeon without blinking.

Chaeyeon chews steadily, and swallows, before continuing, "There was the crack of twigs in the forest, and an eerie noise comes from the direction of the trees."

As if planned, there's a crack coming from the direction of the forest. Yoojung almost bursts into tears, and even Somi seems to be more frightened than before. Nayoung's arms around the two sixteen year olds get tighter.

Chaeyeon doesn't feel bad about it. She was learning scary stories to tell around campfires when she was twelve.

Another crack comes, and Yoojung, Yeonjung, Sohye and Doyeon are off like rockets, making their way into Chaeyeon's tent. After a whistle comes through the trees, most of the other girls go--either from fear or to check on them.

Sejeong and Kyulkyung remain there, warm smiles on their faces. "That was a nice touch," Sejeong says. "How did you get Mina to help you?"

"Aww," Mina whines, from the direction of the trees. "How did you guess?"

Chaeyeon laughs. "She likes scary stories," she just says. "She volunteered to help."

Sejeong laughs as well. "It was fun."

"There is actually an end to this story," Chaeyeon says, "but I don't suppose there's any point to finishing it now." She looks down at the marshmallows, blackening on her poker. "Want to help me finish these?"

"Of course!" Mina calls, running over, cracking twigs as she goes. She almost knocks the bag into the fire, but Kyulkyung rescues it. "I don't need to diet for another week!"

Chaeyeon smiles fondly at her, and sticks the first marshmallow into Mina's mouth. "There you go," she says. "Enjoy."

"I will!"


	5. Kim Sejeong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow (accidentally) managed to write this on Sejeong's birthday. I was proud of myself.

They leave when the sun rises early on the fourth day, after a nice break that was also, somehow, not enough time away from the public and the fans.

It’s back to their van for the long journey home.

Sejeong, who acknowledges that she has had her driving licence for approximately three minutes, offers to drive them part of the way home. She trusts herself not to make any mistakes and ignore the other kids, and Nayoung looks like she could do with some more sleep. Nayoung folds herself gratefully into the passenger seat and is out like a light almost immediately.

The other girls help to pack the van up with all the belongings they’d brought with them for the trip, before climbing into the seats at the back, and they’re off within thirty minutes, Sejeong driving them carefully up the path that will take them out of the wooded camp area and back to the main road.

Most of the girls fall asleep again, savouring the extra time before they are back in the public eye and have to sacrifice beauty sleep once more. Chungha and Kyulkyung stay awake, possibly due to some kind of shared sympathy with Sejeong. They chat quietly; trying not to wake the others up or distract her as she drives.

It’s such a nice drive; early enough in the morning that there aren’t many other cars on the road to spoil the beauty and the peace—Sejeong can hear the birds over the motorway, and that’s not something she can say regularly—that she can’t bear to wake the others up. Instead, she swaps with Chungha, who’s been driving since she was sixteen, back in America. She settles into Chungha’s seat in the back and watches the sky brighten with a smile on her face.

In two hours they’ll be back in Seoul, in their new company. They will settle into their new dorm, though she, Mina, and some of the others won’t move in for another few days; they have to move their things from their previous dorms first, or move from home. They will start learning the routine for the debut song, whilst still reminding themselves of their previous songs. They will have to learn cover dances for things and perform onstage in front of fans, the public, seniors, and soldiers in the army.

But right now, she can pretend she’s still a twenty-one year old on a field trip with ten of her girlfriends, and she shares a grin with Kyulkyung.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” Kyulkyung asks, and Sejeong nods.

“It’s the best.”


	6. Kang Mina

Together, Mina and Yeonjung crawl out of the tent, as quiet as possible so they don’t wake the other girls. They’re lucky that they have the tent to themselves, rather than the two-person going to Nayoung and Chungha.

It’s two in the morning and they should both be sleeping, but Yeonjung had heard about there being a shooting star on day three, and she had whispered it to Mina. Mina deliberately hasn’t told anyone else. Some things she just wants to keep secret; she likes the other girls, but seeing a shooting star is special. The wishes they will make are precious.

So both girls lie on the grass a short distance from the rest of the tents, watching the stars, their hands clasped between them. Their nails, painted pink for the final episode of Produce 101, are chipping, and Mina thinks there will definitely be no polish left by the time they head home.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Yeonjung whispers. “I’ve always liked the stars.”

“Well, maybe you should be added to _Wujusonyeo_ ,” Mina tells her, half teasing. She doesn’t need to look at Yeonjung’s face to know the other girl is smiling, hopeful. She wonders if that will be Yeonjung’s wish, for if they get to see the shooting star. It’s not like adding members to already debuted groups is uncommon; they may decide to add her after her success on Produce 101.

Mina knows that Jellyfish Entertainment are working on a girl group, but she doesn’t yet know who will be included. She knows some of the other girls in the company, as they all trained together—her, Nayoung-unnie, Sejeong-unnie, Mimi-unnie, Bora-unnie, Sojin-unnie, Hyeyeonnie. It could be any of them. It could be all of them.

Mina hadn’t been expecting to make it into I.O.I. She’d thought Nayoung would have made it instead of her. She’d always known that her ability to debut would depend on the results of Produce 101, and sometimes she still doesn’t believe that this has happened. She thinks she’s going to wake up and it will all have been a dream—she’ll be back in the Jelpi dorms after missing the top eleven and Nayoung will be in I.O.I.

But it isn’t a dream, and she’s here, hands clasped with Yeonjung, on the grass in the middle of a bonding retreat hundreds of miles from Seoul, and managers, and work. There isn’t long before they have to go back and start working, recording, promoting, as I.O.I.

But right now, she can just stare at the beautiful stars sparkling above them, and relax in the moment.

Just as she’s thinking it, there’s a beautiful flash. Yeonjung gasps out loud, her fingers clenching around Mina’s. Mina smiles at her joy, swallows, and prays for everything she’s ever dreamt of.


	7. Zhou Jieqiong

The darkness lifts slowly as the dawn settles in.

It’s the first dawn Kyulkyung has been able to look at clearly, to watch, since before Produce 101. Before the show she was always practising, during the show she was always trying to do everything harder, be prettier, be _more_. There were sleepless nights, but none spent looking at the dawn.

But right now, on the first day of their trip, Kyulkyung doesn’t need to be anywhere, or do anything. She knows that she should probably be conserving her energy for the busy and energetic days ahead, but too few hours of sleep have conditioned her to being awake too early. It’s peaceful, and pretty, and the warm colours soothe her aching heart and limbs. She’ll be aching even more later.

They’re on the start of a new adventure, but at least she doesn’t need to be anywhere for the next few days.

There’s a rustle from behind her and Nayoung crawls out of the tent, settling beside Kyulkyung with a warm smile on her face and delight in her eyes. Kyulkyung thinks Nayoung is prettiest like this, when she’s unpolished and unaware, and nobody is looking at her—except Kyulkyung, of course.

“This is beautiful,” Nayoung breathes out.

Kyulkyung looks up at the sky again. “Yeah,” she whispers. “It really is.”


	8. Kim Chungha

“ _Thanks_ , friend,” is the response Doyeon gives to Yoojung after she splashes her with water from the pool at the corner of the sleeping area. There’s no screaming, no screeching, no _hair pulling_ —it’s all remarkably civilised complaining. It was nothing like this back at Chungha’s agency. There were boys there.

A second later, Yeonjung splashes the two of them and runs away shrieking, and _there_ , that’s what Chungha was expecting.

She surveys the younger girls fondly. They’re all young enough to have boundless amounts of energy, and Chungha and the other older girls can’t really keep up. She’s not quite like Nayoung, who almost seems narcoleptic in her ability to fall asleep whenever, wherever, but this kind of exercise, so different from the dance practice she’s done for years, still tires her out easily. She stretches, her arms back behind her, to work out some of the kinks from the rock climbing they had done earlier, and then settles back down on the grass.

Sohye, vastly different from the day they’d arrived and she insisted on dance practice each day, now rockets across the grass and all but _tackles_ Somi into the pool. Somi takes it good-naturedly, spluttering and laughing loudly, so Chungha knows she isn’t hurt.

All hell breaks loose. Somi goes for Mina, who drags Yoojung into the water with her. Yoojung hooks onto Yeonjung, who had ventured a little close, and they all end up submerged to their necks. Doyeon scurries away before she ends up wetter than she already is.

Sejeong settles down beside Chungha, grinning. It’s a warm day and there are towels for all the girls, so nobody is concerned they’ll get sick before their big debut. It’s nice to just watch them play—it’s as good a bonding exercise as any of the activities they’ve done so far.

“This is fun,” Sejeong says.

“You should go and play with them,” Chungha tells her. “You, Kyulkyung and Chaeyeon. Leave us old ladies to rest.” She pats Nayoung’s leg, from where she’s sleeping next to her. Nayoung doesn’t stir.

Sejeong laughs. “You’re not old, unnie! No older than Nayoung-unnie.”

The way she says it, Chungha knows she’s not referring to their oldest, but instead to Kim Nayoung.

“Do you miss being there?” she asks.

“Every day,” Sejeong says, confidently. “But I love this, too. And I’ll get the chance to be back there soon, and with the other girls. This is just the start of a new adventure.”

Chungha smiles at her, her own mind drifting back to practising with Oh Seojeong and the rest of the trainees, including the new 101 friends she’d made.

And then she’s splashed with water.

“Hey!” she calls, turning to look at which of the little brats had done it; all running away from her in all directions in fits of giggles.

She may look cross, but internally she’s still smiling.


	9. Kim Sohye

“Right, let’s get started,” Nayoung says, clapping her hands together.

Sohye smiles, and moves into place. She’d insisted on some kind of dance practice during this trip, because she’s _so_ far behind the rest of them. Somi is always doing this kind of bumpy dance, flailing her limbs about, and Doyeonnie is so fluid with her movements, and Yoojungie just knows every boy group dance in existence.

Sohye? Sohye is a penguin. Her limbs don’t allow her to move the way the other girls’ do. She’s slow and uncoordinated and she wants to do this so much, she wants to not be so much worse than the rest of the girls that it’s obvious. She wants to not let them down, after they were all so kind to her during 101. Even if they just practise _Pick Me_ for eternity, she feels like it’d be useful. It’d be better than nothing. It’d be better than letting her limbs grow lax and stiff and have to rely on muscle memory.

Nayoung and Chungha had designed a kind of fun dance practice for them all: they’re all in their swimming costumes, in the water.

“It’ll be both a good workout, and also nice on our joints,” Chungha explains. “Plus, it’ll be fun, too.”

It is, as well. They can’t perform _Pick Me_ submerged to their chests, but there are other dances; _Crush_ , _Into the New World_ , _In the Same Place_ , _Me Gustas Tu_. Even if Sohye doesn’t know the dance moves, and she flounders at times, the other girls are patient with her. Kyulkyung stands behind her, helping her move her limbs, pressing out against the water.

Sohye doesn’t feel like she’s too slow, or that she’s letting them down with her inability to get the moves. Instead, she feels loved and cared for; the other girls are so tolerant of her lack of speed and inability to get it quickly, and let her take as long as she needs. She knows that once they’re back from their retreat, surrounded by teachers and managers and practices and events for 20 hours a day, she’ll have to pick up the pace. But for now, this is what she needs.

When they climb out of the water, she launches into _Pick Me_ , just to prove that she can, and they all applaud her.

“You did so well!” Chungha praises her, and Sohye grins up at her.

“Thank you!”

Even though it’s a little cooler out of the water, her chest and her heart is warm.


	10. Yoo Yeonjung

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friendship between girls is SO PURE. If only we could all have a friendship like Mina & Yeonjung's! Or Yoojung & Doyeon's, I don't mind which...

“Know your weaknesses,” the 101 trainers, and the Starship trainers, had been very fond of saying. “It’s more important than knowing your strengths.”

Yeonjung knows her strengths. She knows her vocal range is superb, having been used for demonstrations from all kinds of vocal trainers for years; 101 wasn’t the first time she’d been called a “teacher’s pet”. She knows that she can hit any note she puts her mind to without having to strain. She knows that she can hold each note for almost a minute before it begins to waver.

Her dancing isn’t so bad; although she doesn’t have Yoojung and Chungha’s energy and fluidity, she can follow dance routines well, and remembers the dance moves easily. She’s good at other people’s choreography; especially cute or pretty choreography.

She knows that she has a pretty eye-smile; when she crinkles her eyes just right, the older unnies like to give her things. She knows when she smiles, people like her more.

But her weaknesses…

She can’t rap. She’s too friendly. She’s too spontaneous. She can’t freestyle. She’s too greedy. She’s too jealous. She can’t control her face. She’s not pretty enough.

She’s nothing like Yoojungie; cute as a button and appealing, attractive, lovable, _enticing_.

Sejeong has the personality and the voice and the instant likeability.

Somi is everyone’s favourite—vibrant, fun, _brilliant_.

Mina, her best friend Mina, is already an incredibly gifted dancer, at only seventeen years of age.

All of the girls are pretty, cute, talented, endearing—even Sohye, bless her, is a fan favourite because of how sweet she is, and how hard she tried.

Yeonjung was 11th place. She was almost 12th. She barely had a chance, and the public already hate her.

She looks up at the stars. Stars have always comforted her, since she was small. There’s something beautiful about the universe; how, even though stars die and new ones are born, it always _looks_ the same. The sky is always there for her. The stars are always there.

She takes a deep breath, before checking behind her, to make sure that she’s far away enough from the campsite that she won’t wake them. It had been hard to crawl out of the tent without waking Mina up, but she had managed it by padding, light-footed, over the clothes she’d worn yesterday, trying to make as little sound as possible.

Tomorrow they’re going back home. They’re going back to being in the public’s eye. And she’s young; she can’t pretend like their vicious, cruel words don’t hurt her. All she’s ever wanted was to sing, perform, and be loved. It’s what they all want.

The public loves the rest of them. But not her. She doesn’t know who voted her in, but maybe it was a cruel joke, because sometimes she feels like they don’t want her. The group _need_ her vocals, she’s confident of that much, but that’s it.

When she’s upset, the stars and singing have always calmed her. So she heads further into the woods around the campsite, making sure she can find her way back, and then she just sings her heart out.

She starts with _Crush_ , _Pick Me_ , and _In the Same Place_ , and then heads onto _I Swear_ , and _Me Gustas Tu_. Girl group songs always help.

When she’s no longer shaking, the stars and the familiar lyrics (and hand movements) doing their job, she heads back to her tent.

Mina’s awake when she gets back. “Are you okay?” she asks.

“Better,” Yeonjung says, honestly.

Mina leans over and grabs Yeonjung’s sleeping bag, dragging it closer to her, so there’s no space between them. “Sleep here tonight,” she says, and Yeonjung doesn’t argue. Even though Mina’s the younger of the two of them (by four months), she’s always acted like the older one. And Yeonjung needs that right now.

They fall asleep centimetres apart, hands entwined, and Yeonjung wakes up knowing she will fight the world as long as Mina is by her side.


	11. Choi Yoojung

“Time to go,” Yoojung whispers, as she shakes Doyeon awake.

“Huh?” Doyeon asks, as she wakes up slowly. She yawns, prettily. Everything about her is pretty, even with drool wetting the side of her pillow, sleep encrusted in the corner of her eyes, and her bed-hair a mess. Yoojung will always think her best friend is the prettiest girl in the universe. (CL is second, obviously.) “What?”

“You told me to wake you up at 2am,” Yoojung whispers, somehow managing to make the whisper sound a little petulant. It’s a talent she’s actually proud of. “So I did. It’s time to go.”

Doyeon pushes herself up and, without bothering to change out of her pyjamas, grabs her shoes. The two of them creep out of the tent, careful not to wake Chaeyeon up. Yoojung says a mental apology for keeping her favourite unnie out of the loop, but it’s always been the two of them—Yoojung and Doyeon—and, frankly, she wants to keep it that way.

They slide their shoes on once out of the tent—but it’s temporary. They’re not going to need them for much longer.

Both of them have always been _good_ girls. They’ve obeyed their teachers, parents, older staff. Yoojung hadn’t thought either of them had a hint of badness in them, until Doyeon, sleepily, confessed to wanting to skinny dip under the stars. And Yoojung—well, Yoojung had jumped at the chance. It’s something different, something new, something _fun_.

Everyone else is asleep, and there’s a pool here, and honestly it’s not like their unclothed body parts will make the water any different than it already is, right?

So they both sneak to the water’s edge with the help of a torch that Yoojung had brought—on the lowest light setting. The camp instructors had never told them that being out after dark was against any rules, but they don’t want to run the risk of waking anyone up, or getting into trouble anyway. It’s basically public nudity. Being caught would be embarrassing.

They make short work of their clothes, wanting to make the risk of getting caught as minor as possible. Slipping into the pool naked is a weird feeling, because the water is cool this time of night, but Yoojung still relishes the feeling of the water against her skin. Just as quietly, Doyeon follows her in.

Both of them rest against the side of the pool for a moment, and then Yoojung tilts her head to look up at the stars. “They’re beautiful,” she whispers.

“I think they’re more beautiful due to what we’re doing,” Doyeon responds. “This is fun, isn’t it?”

Yoojung giggles. She’s not wrong—the fact that this is _dangerous_ almost makes it _better_.

And maybe it’s weird to be naked in a swimming pool with your best friend, but, frankly, Yoojung wouldn’t be anywhere else right now.


End file.
